Midwest Fight League - From Humble Beginnings

maudlin career · March 14, 2012

Chapter One – It All Begins

How can I even begin to describe what martial arts has done to my life? As a teenager I was angst driven and often described myself with pretentious words like ennui. Don’t get me wrong, my social skills weren’t nonexistent. I had friends, girlfriends, and I even had after school clubs that I was heavily involved in. Essentially, I had all the things a high school kid could want aside from one thing: goals post-graduation.

I didn’t let it bother me at first. Hell, there was a point in time where I was under the impression that I wouldn’t even be going to college. Graduation came around in May of 2007, and honestly, I spent the majority of that summer chasing a particular Vietnamese lady who wanted absolutely nothing to do with me. When that romance failed, I had nothing going for me. No, I wasn’t planning on going to college, I didn’t have a job. Life for me was deemed over.

Or so I thought…

I don’t know if it was fate or my own determination, but the local university had a last minute orientation sign-up in late July. Out of not wanting to spend the next several months lamenting over my failed attempt at wooing the unnamed Vietnamese lady, I filled out the information card and before I knew it, I had an advisor detailing what classes I should be taking during my duration.

Everything came together at that point. I had schooling, a major (English as if you couldn’t tell), and a job. In the spring of 2011, I eventually graduated. My parents were proud, friends were proud, and I, myself, couldn’t believe it. Still, something was missing. That void I had from high school had returned and I still couldn’t figure it out.

I ended up interning at job I had been working at through college. They said I was a shoe-in for a managerial position and honestly, $40,000 plus benefits right out of college sounded amazing. From there, my life pretty much became eat, sleep, GRIND. It was nice to know I had a stable income, but the monotony of the job really impacted my quality of life.

Backing up a bit, in Fall of 2010, Zuffa LLC introduced themselves to Indianapolis with UFC 119. My best friend was a huge MMA guy. I mostly ignored his commentaries on fighting, not to be an asshole, but because I never had any idea what he was talking about. Regardless, with the two of us only living a couple of hours away in Bloomington, it was only obvious that he would want me to make that trek with him to see the guys he idolized on TV.

I thought I would regret it, but it was life changing. The disciplines, the different backgrounds, how serious everyone took the profession. I loved it. I started training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and I still do to this day.

No, I’m not going to tell you some story about how I turned my life around and started fighting professionally. Ha, I got my ass kicked daily at the gym; I knew it wasn’t a possibility. No, instead, something different and equally amazing happened. I quit my job. I used the little savings that I had. Talked with the owners of the gym I had been training at and something new had been born.

What was conceived was a makeshift circular cage that took nearly a week to construct (and another three days to take apart), hours upon hours of emails, phone calls, texts, and Facebook messages, and finally a name.

A name? For what, you’re thinking? Well, I abandoned one dream in an attempt to create another: my very own fighting promotion: The Midwest Fight League, or MFL for short.

With our base of operations being in Bloomington, Indiana, I had no idea what the main goal for MFL was, to be honest. I mean, Bloomington is a huge college town with tons of drunk college kids, surely watching two guys fight each other would be an excellent way to spend a Friday night, right? Outside of that, though, the rest was just over my head.

Advertising, promoting, creating a brand. I’m still trying to figure that out. No one can discount me yet, though, because I got the fighters, and honestly, right now, the fighters are all that matters to me. Oh, and I have a Facebook page, too. That will at least generate some interest, right? Right?

maudlin career · March 14, 2012

Chapter Two – We Like Fighters And People Like Facebook

So I was advised that if I’m going to start tabulating my ventures with Midwest Fight League then I should consider dating everything.

Therefore, today is January 9th, 2012. I’m really happy about this project.

At first I was a little discouraged. My team and I (which is really only me, my BJJ instructor, and my friend William) spent the last three months scouting for talent. Obviously, my coach owning a BJJ gym and all had tons of students showing an interest in participating. Not to seem too arrogant, but that’s the kind of thing I want to avoid - local part-time students wanting to show how tough they are to neighbors, family, and most importantly, girls. That’s not what I had in mind when starting this project to be truthful.

Given the amount of luck we had at receiving responses from professional fighters, enlisting the help of BJJ students looked more and more like a possibility, and honestly, I was ready to scrap the entire idea at that point. Through some fortune, emails started pouring in. Almost all of the fighters we contacted replied at near identical times. It was unreal. We learned later that week that Hotmail was having issues with server upload and a lot of users’ emails were back logged. Two days longer and MFL wouldn’t have come to fruition.

This is the part where I realized we were in over our heads: we had all these fighters, all with their asking prices, and now we needed to not only ensure we had the money to pay them, but we also had to make interesting fights that would entertain our paying crowd. If we had one, that is.

This new nightmare took another two weeks to resolve. We had to contact all of the fighters who we were interested in using on this card and let them know of their potential opponents. Around this time, we ended up with twelve fights on the card, but for the sake of not wanting to lose everything in one move, we scrapped some of the fights, told the fighters we’d keep them on shortlist, and ended up with an eight fight card. Things were looking up.

Promoting was the next obstacle I faced. Thanks to my BJJ Instructor (you know I haven’t given his name yet – Bradley Kiegel) we acquired the Bloomington National Guard Armory as our first venue, so we skipped that problem and went right into figuring out how to get the name out there. Billy, he made flyers. They weren’t amazing, but none of us knew how to do it, and he at least got our name out there. Kiegel passed word around at the gym. Now it was up to me. With no experience in any real category, I did what anyone else would have done. Create An Event on Facebook. After messing around with it for hours and hours here’s what I finally came up with.

Midwest Fight League!
Friday, May 11, 2012 7:30pm until 11:00pm

Join us at the Bloomington National Guard Armory for the inaugural Midwest Fight League event! Fans of boxing and the UFC will not want to miss this as eight exciting mixed martial arts bouts will get the National Guard Armory off its feet.

Sergio Pettis best known as the little brother of current UFC contender, Anthony Pettis, will engage in action with the once beaten and resilient Hector Sandoval in a Flyweight (125lb) tilt that will see both competitors move so fast, that turning your head for just a second means you could miss something big.

Former Indiana University wrestler Kurt Kinser will also return to his stomping grounds to face undefeated Muay Thai ace Thomas Longacre in a classic tale of wrestler vs. striker.

Flyweights will also headline the card as the 25th ranked Flyweight in the world, Brandon Merkt, faces knock out artist Sam Thao in a fight that will not only rock the Armory, but also has the impact to affect international Flyweight standings.

All this and more on May 11, 2012!

Adult Tickets - $25.00
Children (12 & below) - $10.00

Full Card

Main Event
Flyweight
#25 Ranked Flyweight in the World Brandon Merkt (11-0) vs. Sam Thao (6-1)

Heavyweight
Jared Rosholt (4-0) vs. Ryan Martinez (7-1)

Lightweight
Kurt Kinser (5-0) vs. Thomas Longacre (4-0)

Middleweight
Mikey Gomez (12-9) vs. Cale Yarbrough (8-3)

Flyweight
Sergio Pettis (3-0) vs. Hector Sandoval (4-1)

Heavyweight
Demico Rogers (1-0) vs. Jason Riley (9-6)

Middleweight
Kevin Case (3-2) vs. Cameron Diffley (3-0)

Featherweight
Jim Alers (6-1) vs. Matt Fiordirosa (13-1)

HansLanda11 · March 14, 2012

This is great, glad to see you're doing this. I hope all of the fights are entertaining and it is a big success. If it was closer to NY I would be there.

maudlin career · March 14, 2012

Chapter Three – Fight Night!

May 11, 2012

I can’t believe this day is here. I mean, it’s unnatural. I couldn’t sleep at all the night before. I kept checking the event page on Facebook, and couldn’t believe how much interest we generated. Billy and Coach Kiegel kept saying there would be an estimate of 150 people there tonight and that in itself was exciting.

On the Sunday before Friday, I kept thinking about how long this week would be, but man, it went by quickly. First off, we had the weigh-ins on Thursday morning. We wanted to create some buzz and since the weather was nice, we did the weigh-ins right outside the armory. Every single guy made weight and we even got a couple of photo opportunities. Right now, the buzz is on Kurt Kinser and Thomas Longacre. Bloomington wants Kinser to put the hurting on Longacre. At that moment, it finally hit me that all of this was happening.

Thursday afternoon, we had a rules meeting with the judging staff, the referees, and all the fighters. If you’re not in the know on rules meetings, it’s just a procedural drill with how things will go down for the fights tonight. You know, what judges will be scoring, when referees will step in, what things are and aren’t allowed. Just a general breakdown of how things work.

Since Indiana is a regulated state all MMA events have to follow the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts sanctions.

Three five minute rounds.

No kicks or stomps to a grounded opponent.

No groin shots, fish hooking, eye gouging, or hair pulling.

Fights that go all three rounds will go to a Ten Point Must Judges Decision

That sort of thing. It was fun, the guys were excited. I was definitely excited. We all planned to hold an after party at Kilroy’s Sports Bar to generate more buzz for future events. We were all in on this together.

Earlier in this update I talked about how I had trouble sleeping on Thursday and it was solely because of how excited I was for all of this to be happening. I paced around the room, I kept checking Facebook, I kept going through the photos I had taken from the weigh-ins. It was too much.

Before I knew it, it was 5:30pm and we were driving to the National Guard Armory. There was already a small line, roughly about fifteen people waiting for the tickets to go on sale at 6:00. I nodded to them, some of them I recognized from the weigh-ins, and they recognized me, too. I’m not sure if they knew this thing was my idea, but they at least recognized me as being an integral part of it. They nodded, they shook hands, and they told me they were excited. I doubt they were nearly as excited as I was.

We stepped in the armory and there it was - the circular cage that we had purchased and built. I was amazed with how big it was and suddenly I felt like it was 1993 and we were in Colorado witnessing the construction of the all-important UFC octagon. Something big was happening here. It sent chills down my spine.

We went out to the back of the armory where we designated the fighters and their camp to park. So far, Kurt Kinser, Sergio Pettis, Kevin Casey, Matt Fiordirosa are already on location. Kinser, already playing up the hometown hero bit, heads out front to meet and greet with some of the people in line. The other three are warming up for the big event in the back.

With a little under two hours left until show time, I admit that I was sweating bullets when only four of the sixteen combatants were on location. However, as it got closer to 6:30, more and more filed of them filed in until finally, all fighters were on site.

I spent the rest of that time greeting them and wishing them all luck on the show tonight. I’ll be honest, I was still a little fanstruck that I managed bring Sergio Pettis and former Strikeforce competitor Kevin Casey to Bloomington, but I did well hiding the fanboy in me.

7:30 hit, and it was showtime. However, as anyone who’s gone to a smaller show knows, we didn’t really get things started until around 8:00. Coach Kiegel and Bill suggested that I go out there and greet the crowd. I hesitated, but it was really the only necessary thing to do. I went out there and grabbed a microphone and it was a lot to take in.

Me: Good evening, Bloomington! Are you ready for some Mixed Martial Arts action? That’s what I like to hear. I’ll tell you what, tonight is going to be on fire. One of the best Flyweight’s in the world, Brandon Merkt, will be headlining against Sam Thao. If you’re not familiar with Flyweights I’ll just say they move fast and they hit even harder! There’s a hometown boy back there, too, where are my IU students at? That’s right, are you here to watch Kurt Kinser do his thing tonight? He’s gotta tough opponent in Thomas Longacre, that fight has fireworks written all over it. Man, there’s just so much more to name, Sergio Pettis, Season 10 TUF alum Demico Rogers, Jared Rosholt’s on the card. There’s just a lot going down tonight. Now I bet you’re getting tired of me talking, right? So let’s get on with the fights!

It’s show time! In just a few minutes this all comes to a head.

maudlin career · March 15, 2012

Midwest Fight League I

Featherweights
Jim Alers (6-1) vs. Matt Fiordirosa (13-1)

Round One

Both Jim Alers and Matt Fiordirosa meet in the center of the cage where both fighters tap gloves as a sign of respect. From there, Fiordirosa pumps a jab, and Alers responds with a loose counter right hook, but neither punch connects. Alers pushes the pace, looking for a grappling opportunity, but an uppercut from Fiordirosa has him on rubbery legs. Survivalist instincts hit Alers who back pedals away, while killer instincts hit Fiordirosa who charges in catching Jim Alers with another wild uppercut before sending him to the canvas with a powerful right hook.

The National Guard Armory begins to blow up with excitement as Fiordirosa looks to go for the finish. He kneels over Alers and begins to rain down with hammerfist after hammerfist, and though the referee begins inspecting the action a lot more closely, Jim Alers manages to pull Fiordirosa into a sloppy half-guard. Given Alers’ experience with grappling, Fiordirosa was quick to break out of the side control clinch and as a result, Alers was asked to stand up by the referee.

Fiordirosa resumed his assault with a straight right hand, but Alers timed it and managed to force Fiordirosa on the canvas with a double leg. Almost as quickly as he secured the takedown, Alers moved into side control. Fiordirosa kept trying to vie for a closed guard, but Alers used Fiordirosa’s movements to switch sides and lock in an arm-triangle.

At first, Fiordirosa tried to resist the choke, but he eventually gave in and signaled the tap.

Outcome: Jim Alers defeats Matt Fiordirosa via submission (Arm Triangle) in 3:58 of Round One

Middleweights
Kevin Casey (3-2) vs. Cameron Diffley (3-0)

Round One

Both fighters circle around in the cage before Cameron Diffley counters a left jab from Kevin Casey with a flurry of punches. The punches don’t have much sting to them, and they’re revealed to be a set-up for a takedown. The BJJ blackbelt Kevin Casey doesn’t fall for it, though, and meets Diffley’s shoot with a sprawl. Cameron Diffley manages to wrestle back to his feet, but that doesn’t stop Kevin Casey from wrestling him against the cage. Casey vies for a takedown, but with Diffley not giving in, Casey settles by throwing some knees to the inner thigh of Casey instead. Casey then tries for a double collar plum, but Diffley gets double underhooks and manages to reverse the position, smothering Casey against the cage.

Diffley immediately slips a foot in between Casey’s and trips Casey to the canvas. Casey ends up in a seated position against the cage and slowly manages to use the leverage to get back to his feet, but Diffley trips him up once more and sends him to the canvas again. This time, Diffley manages to pull Casey away from the cage, securing side control in the process. Casey tries to scramble out from underneath Diffley, but Diffley manages to momentarily seize an arm from the exchange, and the threat of an arm bar forces Casey to keep Diffley tight in side control.

The bell for the first round sounds and both individuals move to their corners.

Round Two

A missed jab from Cameron Diffley allows Kevin Casey to connect with a counter left. Casey throws a second left, but Diffley quickly shoots in getting a single-leg takedown in the process. CaseyDiffley from advancing position and it proves to show its benefits as Diffley can’t find a way to move past his guard.

Diffley settles for small punches to the body now being stuck in Casey’s guard, and Casey manages to use Diffley’s lack of leverage from the strikes to threaten a triangle choke. Diffley sees it coming and stacks on Casey to move to side control, but Casey manages to force Diffley back into his guard.

Throughout the grappling process, Casey finally managed to find himself postured against the cage. Much like the first round, Casey used the cage to fight back up to his feet, but Diffley pulls Casey’s legs out from under him to gain side control once more. Casey shows a burst of energy and tries to scramble out from underneath Diffley, but ends up giving up his back in the process. Diffley gets the hooks in, but a calm and collective Casey isolates Diffley’s right arm to prevent the rear naked from being sunk in.

Though Cameron Diffley fought for the rear naked choke, the round came to an end with Kevin Casey managing to survive the submission.

Round Three

Cameron Diffley starts off the round with a very sluggish combo that allows Kevin Casey to secure a body lock before tripping his opponent to the ground to secure side control. Showing a sense of desperation, Kevin Casey fires a few soft right hands to the head of Cameron Diffley and then went for his attempt to mount. Kevin Casey’s on fatigue played a factor, however, as he left his head down for a moment to catch is breath. This allowed Cameron Diffley to sink in a guillotine and though the National Guard Armory waited with baited breath for the submission, Diffley seemed to not have the arm strength to force the tap as Kevin Casey refused to give in.

The guillotine allowed for a sweep, however, as Cameron Diffley managed to secure side control once more. Diffley was quick to attack, but moving his hips and quickly locking in an armbar, but Kevin Casey stacked up against him, popped his arm out from between Diffley’s legs and ended up in Diffley’s guard.

Before Kevin Casey could do anything, the bell sounded. The end of the fight had came.

Outcome: Cameron Diffley defeated Kevin Casey via Unanimous Decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Heavyweights
Demico Rogers (1-0) vs. Jason Riley (9-6)

First Round

After both fighters tap gloves, Demico Rogers slips past a jab from Jason Riley and returns fire with a missed right kick to the leg. Riley quick steps to the right and throws a series of lefts, but Rogers absorbs them and muscles Jason Riley into the cage. Rogers tries to wrestle Riley to the ground, but Jason Riley instead manages to circle away from Demico Rogers the two fighters now meeting in the center of the cage again.

Rogers connects with a right kick to Riley’s left leg, but Jason Riley responds with a counter jab. Riley throws a powerful right haymaker, but Rogers moves out of range and connects with another kick to Riley’s left leg.

Having enough of the striking exchange, Jason Riley manages to pull a double leg takedown, but Demico Rogers catches the unprepared Riley with a guillotine choke. Rogers squeezes on the choke and the frustration on the face of Rogers shows just how much he’s working for the choke.

The bell sounds and Jason Riley is saved from the submission.

Second Round

Demico Rogers tries for another leg kick, but Jason Riley comes in hard with a series of punches that buckle Rogers and send him backed against the cage. Riley smells blood and moves in with some more strikes, but Rogers manages to circle away from Riley in an attempt to recuperate.

Digging on survival instincts, Rogers moves in for a takedown, but Riley manages to wrestle him to the ground where Rogers finds himself turtled up. Riley begins to fire away with some light hammer strikes, but Rogers manages to power his attacker off of him and the two return to their feet.

Rogers returns to work with his kick, by once again catching Jason Riley’s left leg with a right kick. Riley tries countering with a jab, but Rogers uses head movement to work past the jab, counters with a right hook that just barely misses Riley and follows up with another kick to Riley’s left leg. Despite being at a seemingly disadvantage in this instance of the striking exchange, Riley continues to a throw a left jab, but Rogers responds with a hard kick to the left thigh of Riley. Rogers’ opponent is now limping which hinders a flurry a punches that comes from Riley, who then quickly has to cover up as Rogers initiates a combo.

The round ends with Demico Rogers heading back to his corner and Jason Riley limping back to his.

Third Round

Demico Rogers feints a jab that forces Jason Riley to commit with a counter right. Rogers uses this to set-up with hard overhand right, but Riley moves out of range. Rogers steps toward his opponent and fires an uppercut that doesn’t connect and Riley responds with two quick left jabs before stepping out of range of Rogers’ powerful right hand.

The striking exchange continues with Jason Riley throwing a right, left combo, but Rogers uses head movement to avoid a bulk of the power behind Riley’s punches. Rogers once again tries for the overhand right, but is nowhere near his target. This allows Riley to connect with two big right hands that force Rogers to back off and cover up.

Riley follows in and though he misses a left jab, he manages to catch Rogers in the body with a left hook. Rogers continues to back away from Riley, but this only causes more aggression from his attacker. Riley begins firing away with a series of wild hooks, and Rogers realizes he has no choice but to respond with firepower of his own. The two begin swinging away at one another much to the delight of the National Guard Armory, but it’s a wild right hook from Demico Rogers that puts Jason Riley to sleep. The crowd goes crazy at the sight of the night’s first knock out and Rogers runs to his corner to celebrate before playing up to the crowd.

Outcome: Demico Rogers defeats Jason Riley via KO (Punch) in 4:42 of the Round Three

Flyweights
Sergio Pettis (3-0) vs. Hector Sandoval (4-1)

Round One

Hector Sandoval misses a left hand, and catches a series of quick punches from Sergio Pettis in return. Hector Sandoval uses footwork to avoid another series of punches and manages to catch Pettis with a crisp jab, but receives a roundhouse kick to his ribs for his efforts.

The two competitors circle around the center of the cage and Sandoval, obviously not interested in continuing to exchange strikes, moves in looking for a grappling opportunity, but a left jab from Sergio halts Sandoval’s movement and leads to Sandoval backing away. Pettis moves in with an awkward right hand, and Sandoval capitalizes by connecting with a right hand. Sandoval then follows up with a left jab, but Pettis counters with a kick to the left knee.

The bell sounds ending the action momentarily.

Round Two

Both fighters step in and exchange strikes, but nothing much comes from it up until a spinning back kick from Anthony Pettis sends Hector Sandoval to the canvas. Sandoval is clearly hurt, but not out, and Pettis moves in to finish him off. Sergio manages to fire away with a couple of right hands, and Sandoval responds by turtling up. Instead of expending his energy with more strikes, Pettis displays his BJJ and takes Sandoval’s back. With his feet hooked in place, Pettis stretches Sandoval out and sinks in the rear naked choke.

Sandoval quickly submits and Pettis runs off the cage with a backflip to celebrate his victor.

Outcome: Sergio Pettis defeats Hector Sandoval via submission (Rear Naked Choke) in 3:47 in Round Two

LADIES & GENTLEMEN, WE ARE GOING TO TAKE A BREAK FROM MIXED MARTIAL ARTS ACTION AND HEAD TO OUR INTERMISSION. IF YOU'LL VISIT THE CONCESSION STAND IN THE BACK FOR POPCORN AND SODA IN PREPARATION FOR THE SECOND HALF OF TONIGHT'S EVENT. THANK YOU

HansLanda11 · March 22, 2012

You have to keep this going. Great writing and so realistic.

Paatero · March 22, 2012

MOAR!

Definitely a fantastic read, so much effort and emotion put into the writing, it really pulls the reader in.

Keep going, you have a customer here <img alt="" data-src="//content.invisioncic.com/g322608/emoticons/wink.png.686f06e511ee1fbf6bdc7d82f6831e53.png" src="<___base_url___>/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png" />.

maudlin career · March 23, 2012

Oh, it's not going anywhere. I just seem to have a habit of starting Diaries right around crunch time at school. Give me a couple of days and I'll have the second half up.

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Midwest Fight League - From Humble Beginnings

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